An aging of Bicycle Company's accounts receivable indicates that $20,000 is estimated to be uncollectible. If Allowance for Doubtful Accounts has a $3,000 credit balance, the adjustment to record bad debts for the period will require a:

The adjustment to record bad debts for the period will be:

Debit Bad debt expense ($20,000 - $3,000)                    $17,000

Credit Allowance for doubtful accounts                            $17,000

(Bad debt expense required)

Explanation:

Bicylce Company adopts the aging of accounts receivable method. The aging of accounts receivable is a criterion for apportioning the balance in the accounts receivable into different buckets (aging), for example: Not due, 1 - 30 days, 30 - 60 days, over 60 days, based on historical information and assigning a credit loss percentage to each bucket.

Since the Allowance for Doubtful Accounts has a $3,000 credit, to calculate the required bad debt expense, we need to back out this amount from the amount that is deemed uncollectible, that is $20,000 - $3,000 = $17,000.